I've always wondered how poorly Molina would have to hit for the Rays to reduce him to a backup role, but we haven't had a chance to find out. Molina's .250 TAv isn't far below league average at catcher, and qualifies as the second-best mark of his career (min. 100 plate appearances).

This article is outstanding. I am extremely interested in the art that is catcher framing, and this article is the ultimate for such enjoyment. I especially love the "This Week In Jose Molina" section. Thank you!

I continue to be struck (so to speak) by how many of the "worst frames" are on pitches where the catcher sets up in a spot and the pitcher misses it badly, even though the pitch is still in the strike zone. It might be valuable in these summaries to include information not just on how far from the center of the strike zone a pitch is, but also, how far it is from the center of the catcher's glove as the pitch leaves the pitcher's hand. That shouldn't be too hard to set up, and it would tell us much about why the umps are screwing up -- as, let's face it, they are.

Not for detecting the movement of the catcher's glove, because the distance in the third dimension, down the camera's line of sight, is essentially unchanged and is known. It's a different situation than trying to figure out where a pitch crosses the place, as is needed for PITCHf/x. Nothing as complicated as PITCHf/x or COMMANDf/x is needed for this; screen captures will do. Math on request.